During the transition, the Bush people set aside 90 minutes for McCain to meet with Bush in Pittsburgh, where he had another event. When McCain aides saw the time allotted, they laughed. The notoriously impatient McCain “wouldn’t spend 90 minutes with the pope,” one aide said. The meeting was chilly and perfunctory. McCain followed up with a letter in which he told Bush that campaign-finance reform was being treated in the press as Bush vs. McCain “Round Two,” and it was in both their interests to find common ground. Bush did not respond.

After the Pittsburgh summit, McCain tried another route, this time faxing his letter to Andy Card, Bush’s chief of staff. “I believe very much in this issue,” McCain wrote, again pressing for a meeting and reminding Bush the campaign was over. “We’re not rivals. You’re my president,” he declared. McCain had said there would be “blood on the floor” if the new Senate didn’t address campaign finance reform. The next day, Bush called McCain at his cabin in Arizona and invited him to the White House the week after the inauguration. “Come over and have a drink, and we’ll talk about it,” Bush said.

SENDING A MESSAGE

On Inauguration Day, news reports made much of the fact that McCain was seated far away from Bush on the dais, and was absent from the lunch that followed at the Capitol with congressional leaders. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell had handled the seating and the luncheon invitations. A diehard opponent of campaign-finance reform, McConnell took the opportunity to send McCain a message. The two men are barely on speaking terms even now. But McCain did not view either event as a rebuke from the White House.

McCain learned that his first (and so far only) meeting with President Bush would be on Wednesday, Jan. 24, from a television news report. Nobody had called to formally invite him-Ari Fleischer announced the session in a briefing with the press. McCain’s administrative assistant, Mark Salter, says McCain staffers were laughing about the mix up, and assumed the call would eventually come. It did-on Monday. Could the senator come to the White House on Tuesday? In a second call shortly after, a White House aide confirmed the meeting would actually be on Wednesday.

To McCain, Bush’s friendly “come over and have a drink” implied that the meeting would take place in the residence. Instead, when McCain arrived at the White House, he was told to enter the West Lobby, and that the meeting would be in the Oval Office. McCain’s evident surprise led to a spate of stories that he had been snubbed; but Salter insists that McCain didn’t care one way or the other. “He just wants to make his pitch. He could have done it in the White House parking lot,” Salter says.

Cheney sat in on the meeting. Good, thought McCain. He’s a quasi-prime minister. It’s good to get him on board. McCain brought no aides into the session, at the White House’s request. Bush asked a lot of questions. They talked about the 60-day rule to curb the power of special-interest advertising. They talked about paycheck protection, how Bush was in favor of it, but for equity, they’d have to limit shareholder contributions. “A nightmare,” McCain told him. “You’d have to get every shareholder of AT&T, and there must be 30 million of them.” McCain made his case that a ban on soft money would not hurt Republicans. It was a substantive conversation, and Bush contributed throughout. Cheney said very little.

‘UNDONE BY CLEVER LOBBYISTS’

At one point, Bush pointed out that Cheney wasn’t a supporter of campaign-finance reform, but added, “That’s not necessarily where I’m coming from.” Cheney interjected that he didn’t know if the ‘74 reforms did much to improve the system. McCain didn’t challenge him-it wasn’t the time or place-but was incredulous when he briefed his aides later. McCain recalled the millions of dollars in contributions given in briefcases uncovered during the Watergate scandal, and the serious money-laundering problems. “Has the law been eviscerated since? Yes,” McCain thundered. “Any law can be undone by clever lobbyists.”

But he came back from the meeting calling Bush a nice, affable man. McCain was satisfied with Bush’s position on finance reform. He had seemed more open to a bill than before. Bush wasn’t particularly articulate, but was quite engaging. “You don’t walk out mad or angry after a meeting with Bush,” says a McCain aide. “But we hear all over town that they despise us.”

And with good reason, if you’re a Bush loyalist in the White House wondering what McCain is up to. He’s cutting a deal with Ted Kennedy on a patient’s bill of rights. He’s working on closing the gun-show loophole with former Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Joe Lieberman. He’s imploring the FDA to regulate tobacco as a drug. And as chairman of the Commerce Committee, he plans to hold hearings on global warming, a contentious issue for an administration simultaneously battling an energy shortfall and an economic slowdown and already on the ropes with environmentalists. “All that gives them fits,” says the aide, adding that the Bush team is not alone. “A lot of people never liked John because he does what he wants.”